Thelas
2009-10-01, 08:51 PM
First things first:
a) I made a new thread because the subject of the old one was no longer adequate and I want people who might not care for rules questions to come here.
b) If you are one of my players: STAY OUT. This post will be spoilered to allow you to leave now. If I have a good reason to suspect that you have read this, well... just don't, okay?
[Posts following this do not need to be spoilered, obviously, the players should have already left by now anyways]
Basics
This game is played in OSRIC with a few rules modifications whenever they must come up in the module. The first module played will be Night of the Walking Dead (available on the 1e/2e downloads on the WotC site), but I will change the prophecy on the hyskosa scroll... I'll come up with something, but any suggestions?
Players are starting at first level, with 3d6 organic (as the organic system in 3.5) characters. We have... let's see, we're supposed to have 4 players, but I'm not 100% sure if they'll all show or if one of the ones who wasn't interested because they just wanted 3.5 will change their mind.
The magic user has been given 1st and 2nd level bonus spells as the cleric table after much complaining just because we don't want him too bored... I'll probably end up still giving him the suggested (in the other thread) fighter (that can't advance past level 1) to play as well, though, because 3 spells/day still isn't much.
Session 0: My Prep Work
I have printed everything except for the magic items (can't print too much at once) from OSRIC and the module (Night of the Walking Dead). I've already read the module once or twice, and I'll probably read it a third time tommorow before the session.
I have written out a little "mini-module" with just a few quick encounters to give them something happening before we get them into the mists and then to the Demiplane of Dread.
Here's my text for when they get pulled in (some parts are a bit vague, because I'm not sure exactly what they'll be doing, though some courses of action [specifically, riding on a raft through a swamp] seem very very likely. I'll embellish it during play, but any suggested changes will be helpful.
You are traveling towards your destination when, all of a sudden, a light fog descends. It is light enough to allow you to continue on your journey, but, a few minutes later, the fog intensifies. The more you travel, the heavier the fog becomes. Heavier... heavier... darker... darker... to blackness. And you feel a chilling sensation from out of the mist. The fog recedes, but as you re-examine your surroundings, everything seems somehow darker. The trees' branches, gnarled and twisted, seem to wave menacingly at you. The air around you feels colder and chills you to the bone. And then you look up. The sky is grey and there is no sun in sight. You look closely at the distance from where you have come and find that, while your immediate surroundings are the same as before, it is but a deception: around you is an entirely new landscape. What do you do?
I should probably point out that none of them have visited Ravenloft before, and most haven't even heard of it (I think one had...). To add a little bit to the game, I'm setting my gmail chat status to various things (the most recent were "Quoth the raven, 'nevermore'." and "Beware... beware of the mist.") Not much, but it might help. Any suggestions for similar things? (I see the players every weekday, so stuff involving interaction with them should be doable.
I've also given the thief's player a simple cipher (just says, a bit cryptically, a little bit about Ravenloft). He's having some trouble decoding it, though, so no guarantees on that front. (Maybe I should have left in the spaces? Nah, I'm not that nice a DM.) [The character will find the scroll somewhere in the first session, most likely.]
So yeah, any tips for the new (at least to both AD&D and Ravenloft) DM?
Also, one or two AD&D rules questions below.
Does the xp awarded from an encounter get awarded to each member of the party or split?
Did my adding the bonus spells to the magic-user make that much of a difference in its overpoweredness? (Remember, only level 1 and 2 spells?) If so, what can I do while still fulfilling the player's demands (which is 3 level 1 spell slots plus the equivalent of 3.5 prestidigitation at will)? [I'm being nice for now, I'll go into Evil DM mode after a session or two.]
a) I made a new thread because the subject of the old one was no longer adequate and I want people who might not care for rules questions to come here.
b) If you are one of my players: STAY OUT. This post will be spoilered to allow you to leave now. If I have a good reason to suspect that you have read this, well... just don't, okay?
[Posts following this do not need to be spoilered, obviously, the players should have already left by now anyways]
Basics
This game is played in OSRIC with a few rules modifications whenever they must come up in the module. The first module played will be Night of the Walking Dead (available on the 1e/2e downloads on the WotC site), but I will change the prophecy on the hyskosa scroll... I'll come up with something, but any suggestions?
Players are starting at first level, with 3d6 organic (as the organic system in 3.5) characters. We have... let's see, we're supposed to have 4 players, but I'm not 100% sure if they'll all show or if one of the ones who wasn't interested because they just wanted 3.5 will change their mind.
The magic user has been given 1st and 2nd level bonus spells as the cleric table after much complaining just because we don't want him too bored... I'll probably end up still giving him the suggested (in the other thread) fighter (that can't advance past level 1) to play as well, though, because 3 spells/day still isn't much.
Session 0: My Prep Work
I have printed everything except for the magic items (can't print too much at once) from OSRIC and the module (Night of the Walking Dead). I've already read the module once or twice, and I'll probably read it a third time tommorow before the session.
I have written out a little "mini-module" with just a few quick encounters to give them something happening before we get them into the mists and then to the Demiplane of Dread.
Here's my text for when they get pulled in (some parts are a bit vague, because I'm not sure exactly what they'll be doing, though some courses of action [specifically, riding on a raft through a swamp] seem very very likely. I'll embellish it during play, but any suggested changes will be helpful.
You are traveling towards your destination when, all of a sudden, a light fog descends. It is light enough to allow you to continue on your journey, but, a few minutes later, the fog intensifies. The more you travel, the heavier the fog becomes. Heavier... heavier... darker... darker... to blackness. And you feel a chilling sensation from out of the mist. The fog recedes, but as you re-examine your surroundings, everything seems somehow darker. The trees' branches, gnarled and twisted, seem to wave menacingly at you. The air around you feels colder and chills you to the bone. And then you look up. The sky is grey and there is no sun in sight. You look closely at the distance from where you have come and find that, while your immediate surroundings are the same as before, it is but a deception: around you is an entirely new landscape. What do you do?
I should probably point out that none of them have visited Ravenloft before, and most haven't even heard of it (I think one had...). To add a little bit to the game, I'm setting my gmail chat status to various things (the most recent were "Quoth the raven, 'nevermore'." and "Beware... beware of the mist.") Not much, but it might help. Any suggestions for similar things? (I see the players every weekday, so stuff involving interaction with them should be doable.
I've also given the thief's player a simple cipher (just says, a bit cryptically, a little bit about Ravenloft). He's having some trouble decoding it, though, so no guarantees on that front. (Maybe I should have left in the spaces? Nah, I'm not that nice a DM.) [The character will find the scroll somewhere in the first session, most likely.]
So yeah, any tips for the new (at least to both AD&D and Ravenloft) DM?
Also, one or two AD&D rules questions below.
Does the xp awarded from an encounter get awarded to each member of the party or split?
Did my adding the bonus spells to the magic-user make that much of a difference in its overpoweredness? (Remember, only level 1 and 2 spells?) If so, what can I do while still fulfilling the player's demands (which is 3 level 1 spell slots plus the equivalent of 3.5 prestidigitation at will)? [I'm being nice for now, I'll go into Evil DM mode after a session or two.]